Ever since 100 insideSTL.com readers filled the Harrah's Poker Room in June, we've been in talks to not only do it again...but to put together a tournament series that would essentially be a league with some big prizes for the top finishers.
And, today, I'm pleased to announce that with our insideSTL.com STL Poker partners at 
Harrah's, we are going to do just that.
We wanted to announce the event to get the field set a few weeks in advance, but it should be said that Harrah's wants to make it clear we are awaiting the official stamp of approval from the Missouri Gaming Commission.
However, I've been told that approval should be coming any day this week. And, therefore, we can make the announcement that starting at noon on October 18th, we'll play five tournament events over the course of three months to get us to the final tournament on January 17th. The buy-in for each will be $130. And, those who finish in the Top 10 of our final event will receive huge prizes that will not only feature cash...but also buy-ins to the upcoming World Series of Poker Circuit Events at Harrah's in April. Take a look:
1st Place: 2010 Harrah’s St. Louis circuit main event seat ($5,150) + $3,035
2nd Place: 2010 Harrah’s St. Louis circuit main event seat ($5,150) + $1,842
3rd Place: 2010 Harrah’s St. Louis circuit event $1,580 event seat + $1,300
4th Place: 2010 Harrah’s St. Louis circuit event $1,080 event seat + $1,084
5th Place: 2010 Harrah’s St. Louis circuit event $1,080 event seat + $867
6th 2010 Harrah’s St. Louis circuit event $550 event seat + $758
7th 2010 Harrah’s St. Louis circuit event $550 event seat + $650
8th 2010 Harrah’s St. Louis circuit event $340 event seat + $542
9th 2010 Harrah’s St. Louis circuit event $340 event seat + $433
10th 2010 Harrah’s St. Louis circuit event $340 event seat + $352
The above figures are based on a full tournament field for all five preliminary events. If we have a full field of 100 players for each event, the prize pool will be $27,000, which will be divided up as listed above with WSOP Circuit Event buy-ins and cash prizes.
There are two ways to qualify for the final event:
1. Finish in the top three of any of the qualifying tournaments.
2. Play in all five of the qualifiers.
Not too bad. In other words, as long as you show up and buy-in for all five, you'll have a chance to play for those big prizes in the final tournament on January 17th.
But, there will be big cash prizes for the preliminary tournaments as well:
1st Place- $1400
2nd Place- $850
3rd Place- $600
4th Place- $500
5th Place- $400
6th Place- $350
7th Place- $300
8th Place- $250
9th Place- $200
10th Place- $150
Once again, the payouts are based on a full field of 100 players paying the $130 buy-in for each event.
Here are the dates for our five tournaments:
-October 18th
-November 8th
-December 6th
-December 20th
-January 10th
And, 
once again, our final event will be on Sunday January 17th at 12 p.m.
So, now that you know the details, you may wonder how to make sure you can participate?
It's simple: email me at tmckernan@insidestl.com. The first 100 players to email me and register will be our field for not only October 18th...but each event. However, knowing that some people will not be able to make every event and/or some people will bail, we will be taking a list of alternates.
We're excited about our partnership with Harrah's, and we're especially excited about putting together these tournaments that will allow 10 insideSTL.com readers to play in World Series of Poker Circuit Events.
And, I can tell you that there is already talk of putting together a second series of tournaments starting in February that would lead to buy-ins and travel packages to the 2010 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.
So, this is hopefully the start of something big. If you want to be a part of it, email me to register at tmckernan@insidestl.com.